


A New Perspective

by bpd_changeling



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, james revealing that he's not actually a complete ass, jily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2017-08-30
Packaged: 2018-12-21 14:07:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11945856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bpd_changeling/pseuds/bpd_changeling
Summary: A look into the minds of James Potter and Lily Evans as they grow and start to look at things in a new way.





	A New Perspective

**Author's Note:**

> Rated teen because they curse a couple of times and also an emotional abuse mention (because the Black family is shitty)

     James heaved a sigh, reclining on his bed and covering his face with his hands. It was late in the evening, after a busy day of O.W.L. testing and outdoor conflict. Two of his roommates were still down at dinner, but he'd been tired and his third roommate wanted to study, for some bizarre reason.  
"You really shouldn't have jinxed him, James." The black-haired boy lowered his hands to look at the speaker. _'You really should have spoken up sooner, Remus,'_  he almost snarked, but he bit back the comment. It wasn't fair, he knew. It wasn't his friend's job to control him. Instead, the look he fixed his brunet roommate with was serious.  
"I know that, Moony, I always know." He sat up, leaning forward to emphasize his words. "Dark magic, Moons. That's what he's into. He always goes on about being best friends with Evans or whatever, but before today I'm pretty sure she was the only muggleborn in the school he hadn't called 'mudblood' at least once. All that blood purity bullshit, and and a ton of seriously evil magic! That guy is _swimming_  in the Dark Arts, and it just drives me up the damn wall."  
     It was Remus's turn to sigh.  
"I know. Believe me, I've got no love for the little slimeball, but it's not worth the trouble. There are more like him, loads more, and hexing the shit out of one greasy punk won't stop them from going around talking about dirty blood- muggles, half-breeds...." James felt a strong twinge of guilt.  
"Ah, Moony, I'm sorry. Sometimes I forget how directly this stuff affects you, and I really shouldn't." Remus shook his head.  
"It's alright, I get it. They tend not to mention /my/ kind at all unless something actually happened, whereas they're always out jeering about 'mudbloods' and the plague of nonmagical blood running in wizard veins." James shrugged.  
"Still."  
     "If the futility of your actions isn't a significant enough motivator, how about how your darling redhead obsession will never fancy you if you keep acting like an arrogant git your whole life." James raised his eyebrows, smirking now.  
"Now, that wasn't very nice."  
"I count it as constructive criticism," Remus informed him.  
"Calling me an arrogant git is constructive?"  
"If it helps convince you to be less of one, then I'd say yeah." They looked at each other for a moment. Then James let out another heavy breath and slumped back onto his pillows.  
"Maybe," was his only further comment.  
__________

     Fifth year had been long. Long and hard and exhausting, for a myriad of reasons. The schoolwork, of course, was harder leading up to O.W.L.s. There was more homework, too. Plus there was that pesky minor incident of her best friend of over five years calling her a racial slur in front of a crowd of people. Oh, and the ongoing torture of sharing a House with James Potter.  
     It was over now, though. It was the last night of the school year, and then she'd be boarding the train home, away from mountains of assignments and ex-best friends and messy-haired assholes. Just one more night. And like every last night of the year in Gryffindor, there was a party going on. It was loud- the room pulsed with music partially covered by the chattering of all Lily's Housemates. She herself had never much liked the chaos of these things, but she did like the songs and the food and dancing with her friends. She danced until her feet hurt too badly to continue and then pushed aside some legs to collapse onto a couch chair. Her eyes swept the room absently, passing over all the familiar faces. When they passed one face, though, they stopped.  
     For a moment, Lily had no idea why. It was just Potter, sitting and talking to Black like always. Except it _wasn't_  like always, because despite the raging party around them, Potter's face was solemn, without humor. His hand was on Black's shoulder, and he was uttering something that looked like reassurances of some kind, only it was too loud to hear for sure. Still not really sure why she cared, Lily strained her ears and managed to pick up some of the words.  
"...if you keep your head down and avoid the both of them," he was saying. "I hate you going back there to those vile, evil monsters posing as parents, but I swear I'll get you out as soon as possible. You know our door's always open, and my mum has been waiting for an excuse to kick Walburga's ass." Black grinned, but only weakly.  
"I don't want to be a bother, with all my complaining and-"  
"Padfoot, not another word out of you. We've been over this. They're still scars if they're on the inside. You're valid, you're my brother, and you're coming to live with us as soon as possible. Understood?"  
"Yes, sir," Black said with a small chuckle.  
     Lily leaned back in her chair, staring at her hands and trying to seem like she hadn't heard. The words looped in her mind. Clearly, Black had home issues- maybe severe ones. Naturally, Lily did care about this, but she was at the moment more intrigued by Potter's response. The boy hadn't attempted a single joke or made light of the situation. His speech was joyless, even passionate in its anger. When Lily had risked quickly looking at the pair of Marauders, she'd caught a glimpse of fire in the eyes behind the glasses. It was strangely familiar and took a second to place.... Ah, that was it. She'd seen him look at Severus like that before. Not when he had an audience, when he was mocking Severus at wandpoint, but other times, when probably he thought no one could see. It was an equal blend of hatred, disgust, and outrage. It was the kind of glare that, if ever turned on Lily, she felt would vaporize her.  
     And she wondered about that look. The words, _It's more the fact that he exists,_  played in her mind, but for the first time, she considered they they might have been false. If Potter equated Severus with Black's apparently abusive parents, maybe that explained some of his behavior. _Not_  that she planned on forgiving him.  
__________

     He had to be joking. He _had_  to be joking. What was Slughorn thinking, assigning her as Potter's tutor? This was all Lily had been able to think about all day, and it may even have led her to fail a Charms quiz. Damn Potter. At the time, she'd been too shocked to argue about her placement. She'd just nodded and, in a very dull voice, arranged to meet back in the Potions classroom after all the other classes let out for the day. But later the frustration kicked in. Why, oh why, did these things always happen to her?  
     At the end of the day, after a brief trip to her dormitory to change out of her school robes, she headed toward the designated meeting area. She had a little while, she figured, because James Potter was always late. When she opened the door, however, he was already there. It seemed he'd had the same idea about changing, because he was in jeans, ripped at the knee, and a faded t-shirt for a wizarding band called Owl Chase. There was something else, too. She guessed he heard the door open, because he looked up immediately, but his expression was one she was not used to seeing on him. In fact, she may never have seen it at all. The great James Potter looked... nervous.  
     He gave a sort of half-smile.  
"Fancy meeting you here, Evans." She glared. She didn't have time for his ridiculous sense of humor. To her surprise, he immediately stopped and looked away. Their eyes didn't meet again until she sat down beside him.  
"Alright, let's get this over with. We're working on the Draught of Plagued Dreams today, right? Page 362." She walked him through each step of the potion, stopping mistakes before they could happen. She avoided any idle conversation, avoided looking at him when she could help it. But whenever she did glance up, she couldn't help but notice things. In complete contrast to Potter's normal behavior, his eyebrows were furrowed in concentration, and he tapped his foot anxiously on the floor.  
     He made a lot of mistakes, or would have if she hadn't stopped him. It seemed, mostly, that his attention wavered whether he wanted it to or not. When she prevented him from over-stirring a third time, he muttered, "Not very good at this, am I?" Lily was taken aback. Hearing self-doubt from Potter was like hearing words of praise for muggleborns from Avery and Mulciber- she never thought she'd live to see the day. She was so surprised that she answered automatically: "No, you're not so bad." He immediately looked up from the cauldron, seeming shocked. After an awkward pause, he stuttered, "Th-thanks," and went back to work. What on earth was going on today?  
     When, two hours later, they finished the potion successfully, Potter practically jumped to his feet. He put all the ingredients back in the cupboard faster than Lily thought possible. When he finished, he briefly met eyes with Lily and actually gave a small bow. Then, as if realizing what he'd just done, he bolted from the room. Lily was left, still sitting at the table, staring out the door after him and trying to process all that had happened.  
__________

     James figured he must be getting old. That had to be it, the only explanation for his behavior. Why else would he choose _not_  to jinx Snape? Why else would he _help_  him?!  
     It started when another boy- Ravenclaw, James thought- tripped Snape in the hallway. The greasy-haired boy lurched forward and crashed to the ground, dropping all of his books, quill, and the ink bottle he was carrying, which of course broke, soaking everything in dark violet ink. James winced. That was never what you wanted to happen to you on a Monday morning... or any other time, honestly. James glanced at Sirius, standing beside him. The long-haired boy was grinning, starting to step forward and reach into his pocket. James knew he was running through jinxes in his mind, deciding which one to use. He felt an unfamiliar squeeze in his stomach. He didn't understand the feeling at all, but it made him put up a hand to stop Sirius's advance. He reached instead for his own wand, and Snape's eyes widened in fear.  
_'I'm not going to hurt you, idiot,'_  James thought. Instead, he simply repaired the broken bottle and used a new spell he'd found recently to siphon all the ink off of the books and return it to its container. He crouched down to help gather up the books, but Snape, frozen in shock up to this point, suddenly came to his senses and jerked his belongings away, taking off back down the hallway with a furious glare over his shoulder. Apparently the shame of being aided by James Potter was worse than the shame of being tripped and soaked in ink.  
     James glanced up when Snape's back was out of sight. Sirius was rolling his eyes. Remus, on his other side, eyed him questioningly. James shrugged in response. Peter, for his part, actually clapped. Trying to act normal, James responded by fixing his normal cocky grin on his face.  
"Been practicing that one for a while. Good, isn't it?" He caught the eye of one more person- Lily. James winked, and she- of course- rolled her eyes before walking away, but she was smiling slightly. James couldn't help but give a more genuine smile in return.  
__________

     It was with a bit of a jolt that Lily realized, toward the end of 6th year, that she was friends with the Marauders. Well, no, she'd known they were _f_ _riends_ \- they sat together at lunch most days, and she hung out with them in the common room- but what shocked her was how significant it was. Every one of them had changed so much to bring them to this point, to make them close like this. Obviously, not everything changed; James, for one, was still arrogant and flirtatious a lot of the time, but he was also interesting and nice, and he never hexed people without provocation anymore, so Lily decided his mannerisms were now more endearing than obnoxious (usually).  
     On the morning of this realization, they sat in the Great Hall eating breakfast. While the others chattered casually and somewhat sleepily still, James had his wand out, pointed at his empty water goblet. He muttered something under his breath and flicked his wand. The glass immediately started to warp and change, reshaping itself. A moment letter, it had become an intricate glass lily, which he handed to Lily with a silly smile on his face. Against her nature, she giggled- it _was_  quite impressive. James's smile widened to a beam. Lily got a weird feeling in her chest that she couldn't quite interpret.  
     She didn't have time to figure it out, though, because at that moment owls began flying overhead. A moment later, a package landed on the table in front of James and a little poofball of an owl landed directly on his head. He laughed in delight.  
"Hey, Rom!" he greeted, reaching up to stroke his feathers. The owl, Romeo, hooted cheerfully. James fed him a piece of bacon off his plate before tearing open the package to reveal a book.  
"Yes!!" he exclaimed, examining the book cover and flipping briefly through it.  
"What's that?" Lily asked curiously.  
"Oh, it's 'Noah Masters and the Griffin Curse'- a wizarding graphic novel. See-" He opened the book to show her a page. "-the pictures move a little as you read. A family friend writes these. She always sends me a copy." Lily's eyes were bright with interest.  
"Cool!" James's eyes widened a tiny fraction.  
"D-do you want to read it? I can lend it to you when I finish," he said eagerly. Lily saw the other Marauders trade exasperated looks in her peripheral vision, but she didn't worry about it.  
"Yeah, that would be great!" she answered. She looked from him to the book in his hand and back, and her heart skip a beat.  
_'Dear god. I actually like this bloke, don't I?'_  
__________

     It was early in 7th year when James finally asked Lily out again, this time in a more serious manner. They were out in the courtyard, just a few yards from the other Marauders, and the sun shined down on them in a cheery way. Lily looked at the boy before her, with his messy hair and soft hazel eyes behind thin-framed glasses, and her heart did a little flip.  
"Yes," she replied immediately. He grinned, eyes sparkling. The amount of joy resulting from that single word surprised her, and she felt her cheeks flush.  
"I have to, um, to go to the library now," she said quickly. In reality, what she had to do was tell Marlene. She hurried off, but not before kissing him quickly on the cheek.  
     James just stood there, shell-shocked, for several seconds. Finally, he moved toward his friends.  
"Guys, she said yes!" he exclaimed happily. Peter cheered and Remus gave a thumbs up.  
"I wonder why she changed her mind after all this time," Sirius said contemplatively.  
"Probably because I was a total dick," James deadpanned. Sirius cracked up.  
"Not a _total_  dick," Remus countered. "You've always had a decent heart. You were just full of yourself and, you know, a dick to Snape." James grinned.  
"Snivellus deserved it," Sirius said, but James shook his head.  
"I still hate the guy, don't get me wrong," he explained, "but hexing him every other day won't make him drop the Dark Arts, so what's the point?" Remus clapped him on the back at that.  
"Prongs, you really are growing up."


End file.
